Tag Archives: Orca

Orcas, Weaner

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Weather has continued to be cold, dipping below zero degrees. Wind has persisted all week NE-E generally over 20 NMPH. Clouds have settled in over the past couple days so it is feeling a bit warmer, forecast for flurries today/this evening.

We were able to get off the island Friday morning for a quick run for provisions. By the time we came back out around noon there were already 3 foot Easterly swells picking up.

Yesterday a pod of around 10 orcas passed by on the West side of Race Rocks heading NE towards Victoria. A group of Pearson divers got to see them from Second Nature on their way for a dive at Swordfish Island.

Bertha left Friday night or early morning Saturday. The young male from middle rock was in the jetty Saturday morning, first time i have seen him on the main island. Chunk has seemed a bit restless. He made his way around the south side of the Science house yesterday and over to main house. He saw the young male in the jetty and chased him into the rocks on the W side of jetty. Chunk went into the water and waited around the jetty, a bit of a standoff. Eventually young fellow made it into the water and I saw Chunk coming back up the ramp around dusk. He seems very uninterested in the pup which is quite different from two years ago when Misery chased and bit Squall all the time. The pup hasn’t moved much and is sleeping a lot.

Feb 8: 2 ecotour vessels in reserve. One vessel caused a disturbance of sea lions on East rocks.
Feb 9: float plane flew over. Sports fishing boat entered reserve in afternoon and was fishing in reserve. I tried contacting them on the VHF radio but they did not respond, I waved at them but they kept on fishing. They didn’t stay long and left for Pedder Bay so I called the marina and reported the incident. The staff person on duty at the marina spoke with the 3 individuals who were apparently not aware of the fishing ban. We have photos and their ID info on record and will report them to DFO if they repeat their offence. Thanks once again to Pedder Bay Marina and their staff for their cooperation and support!

-picked up parts for plumbing drain in main house, bar oil for chainsaw
-cut, chopped, stacked wood
-worked on wiring in station boat, attaching new running light
-shore-master for Pearson divers Sat afternoon
-worked on drain plumbing in main house

Orcas

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NE wind up to 15 NMPH, some light rain.

This morning a pod of orcas passed through the reserve heading West. I first noticed a splash on the north side of the island and then saw a small orca traveling quite fast and surging out of the water. It traveled around the West side and by the time I got to the helicopter pad had joined a group of at least 4 other orcas West of the reserve. Then another group of orcas appeared of the South end of race rocks, inside the reserve, traveling west towards the other group. There were at least 5 orcas in that group too. Both groups seemed to have one larger adult with them. This was the closest I have seen orcas inside the reserve.

Whale watchers abundant today

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Wardens’s report by Garry Fletcher: Chris drove me out this morning to Race Rocks to relieve Courtney our Ecoguardian for the weekend –a foggy start but it cleared off by noon  with a shower in the afternoon. Up the tower at 11:30 for census and the daily  boat survey for DFO. Census from tower at 1150hrs. Harbour seals : 22 SE onshore, 39 SW :  total  61 Elephant Seals: 10 in a cluster behind boathouse: total 10. California Sea Lions 77 south side, 80 on East shore , 40 on NE , viewed from Docks and helipad to get ones not visible from tower: from docks w side 40, East 72, west shore tidepools: 53 :  total 362. Northern Sea lions: middle rock 170, E side docks 30, N rock 50 : total 250

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2-3  year old ??- male and female elephant seals by the boathouse

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Northern Sealions near the winch house, note  small juvenile to the right.

The distribution in the late afternoon changed, with more sealions of both species moving up onto the main  island covering the yard to the North west which is now completely devoid of vegetation.

  electfence In order to curb damage to the grounds, (and pipes and conduits,)  from the sealions this year, we are restricting the movement up onto the center of the island. A network of electrical tape has been installed and it appears to be effective so far.sept2113electfence

Several branded sealions were on the island today, this one 8586 was easist to determine.

Several branded sealions were on the island today, this one 8586 was easiest to identify.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For other branding records see: https://www.racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/marine-mammal-tracking/

 

carcassept2113I was surprised by the number of dead juvenile seagull carcases  around the island. many were young that were probably attacked by other adults when out of nesting territories , the highest count was on the ledge  below Camera5 . Most deaths occurred during the late summer.  Approx count 20.

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Who me?

orca1sept2113Twice today a pod of Orca, ( about 6 ?) traveled through the reserve. whale watchers numbered up to 10 boats averaging 15-20  people per boat.  They were observant about remaining outside the reserve when the whales were inside reserve boundaries, but with a ring of whale-watching boats around the group when they were out in Race Passage, it did not look like the whales were getting much freedom. I believe the Orca pod was feeding on fish because there were many seals and sea lions in the water and none were attacked. At least 20 whale-watching boats were through the reserve today.

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Whale-watching boats waiting for the whales at the east side of the reserve.

 

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Below the cliff from camera 5 is a space behind some rocks with a failed nest of a pigeon guillemot

At the northeast corner of the helipad I noticed a large amount of chevrons from chiton shells, washed out from guano deposits from over the summer. It seemed to be a very dense concentration??

newweather1 Environment Canada has over the summer installed new weather sensors on top of the tower at Race Rocks. Now in addition to wind speed and direction, humidity, temperature, dew point and barometric pressure  are recorded. This provides an interesting comparison with the data from the  ground level recorded by our Davis weather instrument: They may be accessed here: Env Canada Weather

 

 

 

A bit of History:
One can often encounter human-made artifacts on the islands which don’t have an obvious explanation: On the east side of the tower for instance is this  “sidewalk to nowhere”.  Trev Anderson told me about the wooden blacksmith shop that was located in that spot until it was demolished in the late 1960’s.

 

killer whales

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Saw a few orcas off the East end of the island midday
Lots of marine tour boats, counted 15 but some definitely went unnoticed
9 elepant seals behind the boat shed and in the shallows on the East side of the jetty
Students from the college came out to the reserve for a boat trip
-set up sea lion fence between the keepers house and around the derrick shed

 

Human Presence on the Reserve

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Diesel fill up with e-seal_

This past week, we delivered over 4000L of diesel to the island. Even though Race Rocks tries to source its energy from more sustainable practices like our solar panels, often they’re not sufficient to completely power the island. During the dark cloudy days we see so often in winter we rely on our diesel powered generator. Erik Shauff collects thousands of litres of diesel per load in a large metal container from Pedder Bay Marina and delivers it to the reserve by boat. Then we use an electric pump and hose system to transfer the diesel across the island into its holding tank. Pictured above is Misery supervising the process. Erik surveys the yellow diesel tank in the background.

Pod heading east

We also had a whale sighting in the past week. A pod of orcas (with at least one calf) passed through the south side of the reserve on Friday. As always, orcas attract alot of boat traffic. I noticed a cluster of whale watching vessels before the orcas. When the pod moved towards the reserve the whale watchers didn’t follow but instead kept their distance and motored ahead to the next point they calculated the pod to be.

Orcas and boaters on the south side of Great Race Rocks

Orcas and boaters on the south side of the island

 

One private boat-owner, however, chased the whales right through the reserve.

 

 

 

Caught on Underwater Camera 2 by Adam Harding

Caught on Underwater Camera 2 by Adam Harding

 

On one of the trips for diesel, Erik also brought his dive gear to clean the Underwater Camera 2.

Animal Census May22 2013

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Raven and Hawk settle their differences

Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 30

California Sea Lion: 10

Humpback Whale: 1 (at edge of reserve)

Harbour Seals: 150

Elephant Seals: 22

Orca: J-pod passed May 14

River Otter: 1

Cormorants: 20

Caspian Tern: 2

Whimbrel: 2

Re-tailed Hawk: 1

Glaucous-winged Gulls: 300

Western Gull: 1

Pigeon Guillemots: 120

Northwestern Crow: 1

Raven: 1

Black Oyster Catchers: 20

Bald Eagle: 10

Harlequin Ducks: 10

Black Turnstones: 30

Song Sparrow: 6

Canada Geese: 14 adults/20 goslings

 

 

Dec 24th

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Have had some really nice weather out here since the storm. Pelicans are still stopping in and flying through the reserve, mostly in pairs or singles.  Bald Eagles have been quite active in the mornings hunting.

 

On top of the crane, the eagle had just finished eating what looked like some part of a seagull.  In this picture the eagle’s nictitating membrane is covering the eye.  According to Baldeagleinfo.com, “every three or four seconds, the nictitating membrane slides across the eye from front to back, wiping dirt and dust from the cornea. Because the membrane is translucent, the eagle can see even while it is over the eye.”

A few nights ago Zeke got some fresh wounds on his back from Misery, it was not as bad as the the last time.  Him and Misery have been on the main island for several days now. I have not been seeing as many female elephant seals since the storm.  

On Dec 19 there were 15 Green Winged Teals in a pool on the NE side of the island.  This  is the first recorded sighting of this bird in the reserve.

 

 

There has also been a Mallard duck in the reserve for over a week.  Pam Birley first sighted it around Dec 18th, it was also the first recorded sighting of this bird in the reserve.

 

 

 

Yesterday after sunset a lone adult orca passed through the reserve going over Rosedale Reef.

 

Changes in the weather

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The first gentle sou’east weather pattern with clouds and rain occurred in the last few days. The rain is most welcome to wash away a summers worth of gull and pinniped excrement. This island can be smelled from a kilometer away!

At the edge of the world…

Surrounded by ankle-biters!

About 2/3s of the sea lions have left since the weather change. We are down to around 140 animals, perhaps 75 are Stellers down from the 175 of 10 days ago. Californians make up the remainder down from 225. Quite a few juveniles have showed up in the last week.

 

More birds are showing up. In the last few days several Harlequin ducks and a few dozen cormorants returned to dot the shoreline with the oystercatchers. Flocks of Bonaparte gulls feed on minnows in the eddies, forced to the surface from the deeper water by murres and rhinoceros auklets. Killdeers are spending the nights here. I hear them when I shut down the generator at night. Close to 30 sparrows are flitting about, and yesterday a few eagles and ravens were hunting and scavenging. Late developing gull chicks are on the menu. The flock of turnstones forages in the sea lion haulout ignored by the sea lions.

Tour boats are becoming less frequent and sport fishermen are waning too… yesterday for example a pod of orca passed with only 2 boats watching them rather than 8-10.

The Latest News

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As observed with the Horned Larks last week, the southward migration of birds has begun. I was lucky enough to spot this Long-billed Dowitcher searching for food in the tufts of grass.

An unusual Long-billed Dowitcher in early winter plumage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another visitor the the reserve was a small pod of transient orca who created a scare surrounding some sea lions in the kelp bed. The orca thought otherwise of hunting the big carnivores in the tangle of the kelp bed and moved off toward William Head.

If you look close you can see a second small gray fin of a baby or juvenile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sea Lions continue to dominate the environment. I had let them have their way and they surrounded the house and covered the yard. Eventually it became too much and I employed the electric fence to reclaim some territory.

The front yard became a popular haul-out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expressive vibrissae – Californian